American League All-Star Voting Update, As of June 12

Phase one of the Major League Baseball All-Star voting doesn't end until June 22, but we have up-to-the minute updates on voting as it stands right now for the American League.

Phase one of the Major League Baseball All-Star voting doesn't end until June 22 but we have a look at where things stand right out, as of June 12. 

In the American League, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels is the leading vote getter right now. If he ends June 22 as the leading vote getting in the AL, he'll get an automatic trip to the All-Star Game and won't need to participate in Phase 2 of voting.

Here are the top-two vote getters thus far at each position: 

C: 1) Adley Rutschman, Baltimore Orioles and 2) Jonah Heim, Texas Rangers

1B: 1) Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays and 2) Yandy Diaz, Tampa Bay Rays

2B: 1) Marcus Semien, Rangers and 2) Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

3B: 1) Matt Chapman, Blue Jays and 2) Josh Jung, Rangers

SS: 1) Bo Bichette, Blue Jays and 1) Corey Seager, Rangers

DH: 1) Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels and 2) Brandon Belt, Blue Jays

OF: 1) Aaron Judge, New York Yankees, 2) Mike Trout, Angels 3) Yordan Alvarez, Astros, 4) Randy Arozarena, Rays, 5) Kevin Kiermaier, Blue Jays and 6) Adolis Garcia, Rangers

Here’s the full breakdown of the American League ASG voting so far: pic.twitter.com/Y2r1MdoLwI

— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) June 12, 2023

If you need a reminder on how the voting works, here's the word from MLB.com on the process:

The leading vote-getter in each league will receive an automatic spot in their team’s starting lineup. Beyond those two players, the top two vote-getters at every position, and the top six outfielders, will advance to Phase 2 of the voting, which begins June 26. If an outfielder is a league's leading vote-getter, only the next four outfield finalists will move on to Phase 2 to determine who starts at the two remaining spots.

The overall impressions: The fans have done a pretty good job through this portion of Phase 1. Every leading vote getter at a position is within 1.5 games of a playoff spot currently, so the fans have done a good job at picking good players on good teams.

The only place where fans have come up short thus far is in having Belt be the second-most voted on DH. He has just four home runs and 16 RBI, but then again, there aren't many additional serious candidates beyond Ohtani, either.

Ramirez does have nine homers and 30 RBI, in addition to hitting .306.

Also, Jose Altuve has only had 61 at-bats as of this posting. He suffered an injury in the World Baseball Classic and has missed most of the first half of the season. Gleyber Torres, hitting .253 with 11 homers and 28 RBI currently for the Yankees seems like a better selection at this time.

The All-Star Game is July 11 in Seattle's T-Mobile Park. Again, phase two of voting begins June 26.

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